In March 2017 the nation’s first cybersecurity regulation became law imposing strict cybersecurity measures on financial institutions operating in New York. The new rules specify everything from naming a Chief Information Security Officer, to risk assessments, event notification, encryption, penetration and vulnerability testing, training and monitoring and audit logs.

It seems that every day we have a slew of new sensational cases and revelations that make us stop and think “Is our privacy over? Does anyone even care? What are we to do to protect ourselves?” I say, relax, the situation is bad, but it is not as bad you might think and probably not for the reasons you might think so.

Quick – when was the last time you used your smartphone to investigate a health issue? If you are like most people you are probably a “connected patient” using smart devices to take more ownership of your health. A 2015 Pew Research Center (PEW) report shows 62% of smartphone owners use their phone to look up information about a health condition. And many of us now also use our smartphones to correspond with providers.

Communication and effective collaboration within the healthcare industry is not always as easy as it should be. Care teams – from doctors and nurses to the patients and their caregivers – need the ability to communicate efficiently, effectively, privately and securely to ensure the highest level of service. Unfortunately, this is an ongoing challenge, particularly when it comes to long term and home based healthcare.

As text messaging is the preferred form of communication today – whether via native SMS text or through texting applications – many healthcare professionals rely on it to collaborate for faster clinical decisions.

There is only one thing certain in today’s world, and that’s uncertainty. It was certainly driven home by the election results, where everyone was certain of the outcome, until they were not. It is disconcerting to live in this environment. From random terrorist attacks to unprecedented economic and geopolitical events, we need to almost block out the news cycle. In order to survive in this environment, it is important to make a list of things that are in your control and those that are not.

A few weeks ago we saw yet another email scandal. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails were hacked and over 19,000 emails were made public during the convention. The revelations lead to the resignation of the chair of the DNC and dominated the discourse during the opening night of the convention. It is amazing that in today’s world, after the revelations of the Sony emails, anyone would still write emails of this sort. Whatever happened to the old saying, “if you don’t want it on the 5 o’clock news, don’t put it in an email!” It seems like there is a general feeling of “it won’t happen to me” that permeates many organizations. So what is one to do?

Welcome back from what we hope was a happy and relaxing July 4th. Happy Independence Day! For us, July 4th is a particularly meaningful holiday. It’s an opportunity to spend time with family and friends and to appreciate the freedoms and liberties we have living in the United States of America.